Input Needed

[jjeling]

Ok, my PS skills are seriously out of shape. This is a top contender for my favorite image during my trip. Anyhow, I'm having trouble processing it. Maybe its just me, its just too nice on the eyes for me to do anything to it without ruining it. I would like a dark sky to really highlight the stars, but also, lighten up mountain range and foreground.... let me know what you think.

This first one is a simple adjustment in the levels. No dodging, burning, or even curve adjustment.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8145/7572954622_9e10ab0cf6_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/28054853@N08/7572954622/)
IMGP1887 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/28054853@N08/7572954622/) by jjeling (http://www.flickr.com/people/28054853@N08/), on Flickr


This second one is my first attempt of actually editing this thing.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8163/7549950790_e2dea54481_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/28054853@N08/7549950790/)
IMGP1887 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/28054853@N08/7549950790/) by jjeling (http://www.flickr.com/people/28054853@N08/), on Flickr

And the latest and greatest. This is about as close to perfect as I can get. Looking for some input here. Maybe this is about right.....
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7267/7572977060_1dfda0813f_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/28054853@N08/7572977060/)
IMGP1887 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/28054853@N08/7572977060/) by jjeling (http://www.flickr.com/people/28054853@N08/), on Flickr

[theantiquetiger]

I like #2 of the 3. I like the darker sky, but either works, just depends on what you want, detailed sky or detail mountain.

[kevin99989]

I like the sky in #2 and the foreground and mountains in image #3. Maybe you can select the sky and selectively darken and increase the contrast of that particular area? Did you shoot in RAW?

[belliveau]

Cool shot. If you have light room 4 you can paint your exposure in. Bring one up one stop and the other down or something like that.

[Marko]

This would have been a very good candidate for HDR and your post-processing would have been much much easier.
Shot 2 is showing quite a bit of noise/artifacting in the sky...

Shot 3 is much better in this regard and is my fave of the set.